Freight-car seal.



G.B.EDGAR,SR.

FREIGHT GAR SEAL.

APPLICATION FILED JUNE 10, 1909.

Patented Dec. 27,1910.

r t attomuu NITE STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE B. EDGAR, $3., OF IOLA, KANSAS, ASSIGNOR OF ONE-THIRD TO LUTHER C.

. BEATTY, OF IOLA, KANSAS.

FREIGHT-CAR SEAL.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed June 10, 1909.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE B. EDGAR, Sr., a citizen of the United States, residing at Iola, in the county of Allen and State of Kansas, have invented a new and useful Freight-Car Seal, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to a seal for freight car doors, and the object of the invention is to provide a device of this character which is extremely simple and inexpensive to manufacture, which is capable of being readily attached without the use of any instruments, and which, after being attached, forms an absolutely reliable seal incapable of being opened and again used.

A further object of the invention is the provision of .a single piece metal seal of strip form weakened by a transverse notch which forms the line on which the seal is bent in the final stage of sealing, there being sufficient metal left at the notch to permit the metal to be bent once without fracturing the fibers, but which upon opening the seal completely fractures the fiber so that the seal is rendered useless.

With these objects in view and others, as will appear as the description proceeds, the invention comprises the Various novel features of construction and arrangement of parts whichwill be more fully described hereinafter and set forth with particularity in the claims appended hereto. I

In the accompanying drawing, which illustrates one embodiment of the invention, Figure 1 is aperspective view of the seal shown applied to the lockin pin of a car door. Fig. 2 is a horizontal section taken through the pin and showing the seal in plan. Fig. 3 is av perspective View of the blank from which the seal is made. Fig. 4 is a plan view of another form of seal shown in sealing position on the locking pin, which latter is in section. Fi 5 is a perspective view of the blank there or. Fig. 6 is a plan view of a further modification with the locking pin in section. Fig. 7 is a perspective view of the blank from which the seal in Fig. 6 is made.

Similar reference characters are employed to designate corresponding parts throughout the views.

Referring to the drawing, A designates a car door to which is fastened a hasp 1 that means 2 on the door frame B of the car, and passing through the staple is a locking pin 3 for holding the hasp in place. The locking pin has applied thereto a seal designated generally by C which is constructed of a stiff metal strip 4, as shown in Fig. 3, which has transverse notches 5 that form weakened points on which the extremities 6 and 7 of the bar can be bent over each other and around the locking pin. The terminal member 6 is curved as shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2- with its extremity spaced away from the central portion of the seal,while the terminal member 7 is left straight so that the seal can be readily inserted in the slot or eye 8 of the locking pin. After the seal is inserted to the position shown by dotted lines in Fig. 2, the member 6 is bent inwardly toward the body or central portion of the seal, and thereupon the other terminal member 7 is bent inwardly over the member 6, so thatthe seal forms a bi-doubled structure with one terminal member bent backwardly over the other so that there is no possibility of the seal being opened without destroying the same. By notching the metal strip at the points 5, the members can be conveniently bent into sealing position and suffi-. cient metal is left to permit of this bending without fracturing the fibers of the metal, but when a reverse bending action takes place, as in opening the seal, the fibers will be fractured to such an extent that the member will either break off or cannot be re-bent without complete severance.

In the construction shown in Figs. 4 and 5, the strip 8 is provided with three notches 9, 10 and 11, whereby the strip can be bent into an approximately right angle triangular form with the terminal members or sections 12 and 13 lapping one over the other. In the simplest form of the device shown in Fig. 7, the strip 14 has but a single transverse notch 15 adjacent one end and the opposite end is curved backwardly over the strip without being notched, as shown in Fig. 6, and the terminal member 16 beyond the notch 15 is bent backwardly over the curved member 17. These various sealing devices are readily applied to the parts to be sealed without the use of instruments, since the members can be readily bent to sealing position, and furthermore the seal is adapted to fit over a staple or equivalent can be opened without the use of an instrument, but by reason of the weakening of the sealed strip, the seal can be used but once.

From the foregoing description, taken in connection with the accompanying drawing, the advantages of the construction and of the method of operation will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art to which the invention appertains, and while I have described the principle of operation of the invention, together with the device which I now consider to be the best embodiment thereof, I desire to have it understood that the device shown is merely illustrative, and

' that such changes may be made when desired as are within the scope of the claims appended hereto.

Having thus described the invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is:

1. A car seal consisting of a metal strip adapted to be passed through an opening in the member to be sealed, said strip comprising a body section and oppositely bent ter; minal sections both disposed in overlapping relation to the body section and to each otherand both extending across the member tions arranged in overlapping relation by being bent backwardly over the body portion and around the member to be sealed,

there being a transverse notch in one of the flat sides of the strip extending from one side edge to the other for weakening the material at the bend between the body portion and the outermost terminal section of the seal.

In testimony, that I claim the foregoing as my own, I have hereto aflixed my signature in the presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE EDGAR, SR.

Witnesses:

L. R. MELVIN, .G. S. THOMAS. 

